The Assumption Novena

The Assumption novena is the nine-day devotion prayed in the days before August 15, the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, asking her — now crowned Queen of Heaven and earth — to carry our petitions to God and lead us safely to her Son at the hour of our death. It is prayed for any need laid at her feet, but above all for the grace of a holy death. Below we give the full novena — the opening prayer and a distinct prayer for each of the nine days — with the older single-prayer form, the variants the faithful most often seek, and the story of the feast itself. If you are new to this form of prayer, see first our guide to what is a novena.

The Assumption is among the most ancient of Our Lady's feasts, kept in Rome and the East since at least the sixth century; the truth it celebrates — that Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken up body and soul into heaven — was defined as a dogma of the Faith by Pope Pius XII in 1950. It is a First Class feast in the traditional calendar and a Holy Day of Obligation (see holy days of obligation).

The full Assumption novena

The novena is prayed once a day for nine consecutive days, ordinarily from August 6 or 7 through August 14, so the ninth day closes on the vigil and the feast dawns on the tenth. Begin each day with the Sign of the Cross and the opening prayer, then pray the prayer appointed for that day, naming your intention where indicated.

Opening prayer (each day):

Lord Jesus Christ, You have destroyed the power of death and given the hope of eternal life for body and soul. You granted your Mother a special place in your glory, and did not allow decay to touch her body. As we rejoice in the Assumption of Mary, grant us renewed confidence in the victory of life over death. Amen.

Day 1

Immaculate Virgin, Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we believe in your triumphant Assumption into heaven, where the angels and saints acclaim you as Queen of Heaven and earth. We join them in praising you and bless the Lord who raised you above all creatures. With them we honor you. We are confident that you watch over our daily lives, and we ask that you intercede for us now. (Mention your request.) We are comforted by our faith in the coming Resurrection, and we look to you for prayers and comfort. After this earthly life, show us Jesus, the blessed fruit of your womb, O kind, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary. O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 2

Mary, Assumed into Heaven, we venerate you as the Queen of Heaven and earth. As you tasted the bitterness of pain and sorrow with your Son on earth, you now enjoy eternal bliss with Him in Heaven. Loving Queen, intercede for us in our needs. (Mention your request.) We praise Jesus for giving us such a loving mother. O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 3

O Mother, Assumed into Heaven, because you shared in all the mysteries of our Redemption here below, Jesus has crowned you with glory. With your most glorious and powerful intercession, help us, O loving Mother, and present to Jesus our request. (Mention your request.) O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 4

O Dearest Mother Mary, Assumed into Heaven, God placed you at His right hand that you may intercede for His little ones as the Mother of God. In the midst of all the saints you stand as their Queen and ours — dearer to the Heart of God than any creation. You pray for your children and grant us every grace won by our loving Savior on the Cross. Please intercede for us in our needs, and ask Jesus to grant our request if it be for the good of our souls. (Mention your request.) O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 5

O merciful and loving Mother, may your glorious beauty fill our hearts with a distaste for earthly things and an ardent longing for the joys of Heaven. May your merciful eyes glance down upon our struggles and our weakness in this vale of tears. Hear then, loving Mother, our request, and plead to Jesus for us. (Mention your request.) Crown us with the pure robe of innocence and grace here, and with immortality and glory in Heaven. O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 6

Mary, our dear Mother and mighty Queen, take and receive our poor hearts with all their freedom and desires, all the love and all the virtues and graces with which they may be adorned. All we are and all we might be, all we have and hold in the order of nature as well as of grace, we have received from God through your loving intercession. Help us, dear Mother, to surrender to God all that we have, including our petitions. (Mention your request.) Our Lady and Queen, into your gentle hands we entrust all, that it may be returned to its noble origin. O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 7

Mary, Queen of every heart, accept all that we are and bind us to Jesus with the bonds of love, so that we may be yours forever and may be able to say in all truth: "I belong to Jesus through Mary." Our Mother, Assumed into Heaven and Queen of the Universe, ever-Virgin Mother of God, obtain for us what we ask, if it be for the glory of God and the good of our souls. (Mention your request.) Our Mother, Assumed into Heaven, we love you. Give us a greater love for Jesus and for you. O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Amen.

Day 8

Mary, Queen Assumed into Heaven, we rejoice that you are the Queen of Heaven and earth. You have given your holy fiat to God and became the Mother of our Savior. Obtain peace and salvation for us through your prayers, for you have given birth to Christ our Lord, the Savior of all mankind. Intercede for us and bring our petitions before the Throne of God. (Mention your request.) Through your prayers, may our souls be filled with an intense desire to be like you, a humble vessel of the Holy Spirit and a servant of the Almighty God. Pray for us, O Queen Assumed into Heaven. Amen.

Day 9

O Blessed Mother, Assumed into Heaven, after years of heroic martyrdom on earth, we rejoice that you have at last been taken to the throne prepared for you in Heaven by the Holy Trinity. Lift our hearts with you in the glory of your Assumption above the dreadful touch of sin and impurity. Teach us how small earth becomes when viewed from heaven. Make us realize that death is the triumphant gate through which we shall pass to your Son, and that someday our bodies shall rejoin our souls in the unending bliss of heaven. From this earth, which we tread as pilgrims, we look to you for help. In honor of your Assumption into Heaven, we ask for this favor: (Mention your request.) At the hour of our death, lead us safely to the presence of Jesus to enjoy the vision of God for all eternity together with you. Pray for us, O Queen Assumed into Heaven, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ. Amen.

Many close each day with an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and a Glory Be, and the invocation O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us.

The traditional single-prayer form

Some prefer to pray the same prayer each of the nine days rather than a distinct one daily — the form long carried in prayer-books, often prayed from August 7 to August 15. It is the ninth-day prayer above, said in the singular:

Mary, Queen Assumed into Heaven, I rejoice that after years of heroic martyrdom on earth, you have at last been taken to the throne prepared for you in heaven by the Holy Trinity. Lift my heart with you in the glory of your Assumption above the dreadful touch of sin and impurity. Teach me how small earth becomes when viewed from heaven. Make me realize that death is the triumphant gate through which I shall pass to your Son, and that someday my body shall rejoin my soul in the unending bliss of heaven. From this earth, over which I tread as a pilgrim, I look to you for help. I ask for this favor: (Mention your request.) When my hour of death has come, lead me safely to the presence of Jesus to enjoy the vision of my God for all eternity together with you. Amen.

Either form is a true novena to the Assumption: choose the nine distinct prayers for a fuller meditation, the single prayer to keep one text steady before the feast.

Variants the faithful ask for

The 54-day Rosary novena ending on the Assumption

Because August 15 is one of Our Lady's greatest feasts, many time the great 54-day Rosary novena to close upon it, counting back so the fifty-fourth day falls on the feast. It is a distinct and far longer devotion — twenty-seven days of petition and twenty-seven of thanksgiving — a way to prepare over many weeks rather than nine. To pray the Rosary itself well, see how to pray the Rosary.

The Assumption novena of St Alphonsus Liguori

St Alphonsus Liguori, the Marian Doctor of the Church, gave the Assumption its own discourse, meditation and prayer in his classic The Glories of Mary — the form sometimes sought as the "St Alphonsus Assumption novena." His meditations dwell on Mary's holy death, her being taken up body and soul, and her crowning as Queen, and pair naturally with the daily prayers above for anyone wishing to add a spiritual reading to the nine days.

For a specific intention and for a holy death

The novena carries any worthy petition — this is the meaning of (Mention your request) in every day's prayer — but the intention woven through the whole devotion is the grace of a holy death, that Our Lady "lead us safely to the presence of Jesus" at our last hour. Name your particular need plainly, and pray it inside that larger petition: that whatever we ask, we may above all die in the friendship of God and share the glory into which she was assumed.

A printable or day-by-day novena

The complete text above is the whole devotion; there is nothing further to obtain. To pray it day by day without a printed sheet, keep the opening prayer and nine daily prayers on hand — or pray them in the Iter Fidei app, which serves the novena one day at a time with a reminder for each of the nine days, so the sequence is kept for you.

How to pray the Assumption novena

A novena is nine days of steady, unhurried prayer. Begin on August 6 or 7 so the last day falls on the vigil (some begin on the 7th to close on the 15th itself), and pray at a fixed hour each day: the opening prayer, the day's prayer, and your intention where the text calls for it. Add, where you can, a decade or a full Rosary, and — best of all — assist at Mass on August 15, a Holy Day of Obligation. Pray throughout in submission: Thy will be done, trusting the Mother of God to obtain what is best for our souls. For the wider meaning of this practice, see what is a novena.

The Assumption of Our Lady: the feast and the dogma

Mary was a Jewish maiden of the house of David, daughter of St Joachim and St Anne, preserved from the first instant of her conception from every stain of original sin — the Immaculate Conception the Church keeps on December 8. Betrothed to Joseph the carpenter, she conceived the Son of God by the Holy Ghost at the Annunciation, bore Him at Bethlehem, and followed Him to Calvary, where the sword foretold by Simeon pierced her heart and her dying Son entrusted her to the beloved disciple. After Pentecost she lived under the care of St John.

Of her death Scripture is silent, and no record fixes the place with certainty — one tradition names Ephesus, another Jerusalem. But the constant belief of the Church is that her body, which had been the most pure temple of God, was not left to the corruption of the grave, a privilege due to a body never defiled by sin. This is the Assumption: not that Mary raised herself, as her Son ascended by His own power, but that she was taken up, body and soul, into glory.

For centuries this was held everywhere as a pious and certain belief, called by Pope Benedict XIV a "probable opinion." Then in 1950, after consulting the whole Church through her bishops, Pope Pius XII, in the bull Munificentissimus Deus, solemnly defined "that the immaculate Mother of God, the Ever-virgin Mary, was, on the completion of her earthly life, assumed body and soul into the glory of Heaven" — a truth revealed by God and an article of the Faith. The feast on August 15 is far older than its definition: it was among the most solemn days of the Roman year already in the seventh and eighth centuries. Assumed into heaven, Mary is crowned its Queen — which is why the octave day, August 22, keeps the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and why the whole treasury of Marian devotion, from the Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary to the Hail Holy Queen, hails her as Queen of Heaven.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I pray the Assumption novena?

Pray it once a day for nine consecutive days, ordinarily from August 6 or 7 through the vigil of August 15. Each day make the Sign of the Cross, say the opening prayer, then the prayer appointed for that day, naming your intention where the text says (Mention your request), and close with O Queen Assumed into Heaven, pray for us. Many add an Our Father, Hail Mary, and Glory Be. You may instead pray the single "Mary, Queen Assumed into Heaven, I rejoice..." prayer on each of the nine days.

When do you start the Assumption novena?

Because the feast is August 15 and a novena is nine days, the devotion is begun on August 6 (closing on the 14th, the vigil) or August 7 (closing on the 15th itself). Either is traditional. If you find this page later, you may still pray nine days ending on any day you choose to honour the Assumption.

What is the Assumption of Mary?

The Assumption is the truth that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was taken up — body and soul — into the glory of heaven, rather than left to await the resurrection of the body in the grave. It is distinct from the Ascension of our Lord: Christ ascended by His own divine power; Mary was assumed, raised by God's gift, as a first fruit of the redemption her Son won.

Is the Assumption a Holy Day of Obligation?

Yes. August 15, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a First Class feast and one of the Holy Days of Obligation, on which the faithful are bound to assist at Mass — and the novena is its natural preparation. See our guide to the Holy Days of Obligation.

Did Mary die before her Assumption?

The Church has not defined this; the 1950 definition speaks only of "the completion of her earthly life." The general and traditional belief is that she did truly die — a holy death, without the pains that are the wages of sin — before being assumed body and soul; some ancient writers called it her "dormition," her falling asleep. What is of faith is the Assumption itself: that her body did not see corruption but was taken up in glory.

What novena is prayed after the feast of the Assumption?

Devotion to Our Lady does not stop on August 15. In the traditional calendar the Assumption is followed by its octave, closing on August 22 with the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Marian devotion then carries on toward the Nativity of Our Lady on September 8 and Our Lady of the Rosary on October 7, for which see our Novena to Our Lady of the Rosary.

When was the Assumption defined as a dogma?

On November 1, 1950, Pope Pius XII promulgated the bull Munificentissimus Deus, defining the Assumption as a dogma of the Faith. The belief itself is ancient, but 1950 is the year it was solemnly and infallibly declared to be divinely revealed.

Pray this novena with a reminder for each of the nine days, in Latin and your own language with audio, in the Iter Fidei app. Download it here.

Sources. Holy Scripture (Luke 1; John 19:26-27); the traditional Novena to Our Lady of the Assumption and its nine daily prayers; Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus (1950), defining the dogma of the Assumption; St Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary (discourse on the Assumption); Butler's Lives of the Saints (the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, August 15); the Roman liturgy of the feast and its vigil (August 14-15).